football rambles

 A first half hattrick from Dylan Edge helped secure the points and a gap of 5 at the top of the league for the Red Army in cold and wet conditions last night. Downham got off to one of their trademark fast starts attacking the Wimbotsham End and Edge got the first goal from 20 yards out on 4 minutes. It was a good finish, but I feel like the Brantham keeper had his positioning wrong all the same. The opening half an hour saw Downham continue to create chances, however it was Brantham who got back on level terms just after the half hour mark. Charlie Royle had had the beating of the Brantham defence for the most part was not able to beat the keeper and then when they broke they showed him how to finish by slotting the ball in the bottom corner for the equaliser. Brantham were buoyed by the goal and had a chance to go into the lead shortly after but a good save from Harry Sutton kept the score on level terms.  The visitors probably thought that half time was going to come soone...

 A good weekend was had in Brum, but this was a very frustrating result and one that doesn't help with Villa getting into Europe again next season. Villa had 25 shots on target and ended the game with a forward line of Ollie Watkins, Marcus Rashford and Marco Asensio. You would really have hoped they would have put more than one chance into the goal. 76% possession and the fact Ipswich had Axel Tuanzebe sent off before half time meant Villa probably should have done more. However, Alex Palmer in the Ipswich goal turned into prime Lev Yashin and we couldn't break them down. In fact it was Ipswich who opened the scoring from Liam Delap on a rare flurry into the Villa box and Martinez was caught at the near post to give the Tractor Boys the lead on 56 minutes. Villa got back into it on 69 minutes when a thunderous freekick from Rashford hit the bar and Watkins scored the rebound, but although Villa and in particular Rashford and Asensio created some good chances, Ipswich were reso...

 On Saturday I went on what was a surprisingly arduous journey to Dereham to see two of the stronger teams in the division take on each other and it was a fairly even match, which although scrappy at times saw both teams have chances. It didn't look like that would be the case at the start of the game though. Shortly after kick off George Diggins was brought down in the box by the keeper and awarded a penalty. The Dereham keeper saved though, so it remained 0-0. That didn't las long though as a couple of minutes after Diggins got through again and managed to put Thetford in the lead. It was only surprising that there were no further goals in the game and it ended 1-0 to the visitors who maintained their lead at the top of the table.

 Unfortunately, I have been short on time this week so I am only coming back to this game after nearly a week.  It was a well won game by Downham, who I thought would find it tough against Yarmouth. However, the Red Army got off to a flying start that put the Bloaters on the back foot. A cross from Charlie Royle was met at the far post by Dylan Edge in the first minute to put the home team ahead.  Downham remained on top and a strike from Charlie Royle on the 20 minute mark made it 2-0. The rest of the game was well managed by Downham who kept Yarmouth at bay and gathered a fine well earned win.